Munich: Day 3 - Schloss Nymphenburg/ Hirschgarten

Today was my favorite day in Munich. The day was gorgeous and we got to see a palace and hang out in a park.

Schloss Nymphenburg: We headed out to Schloss-Nymphenburg on the tram. The Palace (Schloss) was just amazing. It was so big I don't even know how describe it. The tram let you off in front of the palace but it is still a walk to get to to the front door of the palace. There is a canal that runs from the road to the front of the palace where it opens up into a small pond with a water fountain. We decided to go into the palace before exploring all the grounds. When you enter the palace you enter into the Great Hall. The ceilings were very high and were all painted with frescoes depicting the Olympian gods. There was also a lot of gilding. It is apparently one of the most accomplished monumental room designs of late Rococo court art in Bavaria. We were only able to see part of the first floor since that is all that is open ot the public. After walking through the first floor we headed outside to the "backyard".

The enormous park in back of the palace was also beautiful. According to our guide book the palace gardens are symmetrically laidout Frech gardens that give way to an English style landscaped park, which was established using the existing forest. The gardens feature pavilions, lodges, fountains, ornamental ponds and canals. We decided to explore the grounds and look in some of the outbuildings. As you can see in the picture, straight out from the palace is grass, flowers and a canal. Once you turn left or right you enter the woods. We started out into the woods to find the hunting lodge. I'm not sure why they needed a hunting lodge a few hundred yards from the house but I guess when you are that wealthy you can just build a house if you want one. This house was beautifully done in the Rococo style. It was built between 1734-1739. It is not what I would picture as a hunting lodge. This house was filled with silver detailing as you can see in the bedroom picture. After leaving the hunting lodge we continued down a wooded bath along another small canal. This canal fed the pump house that was used to pump wter to the fountains. We continued on to the Badenburg house which was the bath house. The basement was dedicated to bathing. It was a little strange to think that the entire area had water in it. We couldn't really ask many questions about how it worked since there was no guide at the site just the man taking tickets but I was curious as to how hogh the water was and how often the water was emptied. It seems like it would take quite a while to fill the room with water. This house is also set on a lake so when you are on the main floor you can look at the windows and see the beautiful placid lake. After the bath house we crossed back through the woods and the park to the other side of the park to see another house called the Pagodenburg. Again, I don't quite understand why they needed additional houses in their gardens but it was beautiful. We then stopped along the main canal and had some snacks. Thinking back on our day there I realized that we didn't even go to see the botanical gardens. Oh well, maybe next time.

Hirschgarten: After spending half the day at Schloss Nymphenburg we decided to go to a beer garden. We had looked on the map and figured it was only a couple stops away on the tram. Luckily we were right. We got off the tram and headed into the park hoping that it would be easy to find the beer garden. It seemed like we would be able to find it given it has 8,000 seats! We started t ostroll in the park and of course didn't see anything so I decided to ask someone. It seemed that whomever we spoke with in Germany could always speak some English. This was no exception. I asked and was told 500 meters ahead. We were happy that we had been heading in the right direction and sure enough we came upon the beer garden. We found a table amd sat down. I went up to the food area and got a few different kinds of sausages and french fries and brought them back to the table. Then I went back to find a beer for Jason. They have giants closets filled with beer glasses. You choose your glass and then bring it to one of the may huts serving beer. There are 2 different size glasses. I chose the liter size glass and that seemed to be the most populat choice and I wanted Jason to have the full experience! After eating the sasuage and fries I went back for a pretzel. The pretzels are so big they take up an entire plate. After eating our fill we found a place in the park and sat down while the girls played with the pinwheels we bought them. THe pinwheels where a big hit with the girls and with other kids. The girls had fun showing off their new toy to other kids. We should have gotten a commission from the vendor as people kept asking where we got them so they could get one for their kids as well. It was a full, fun, and relaxing day. View all Munich photos